Price indices based on real transactions offer unique insights
by Dagmar Dieterle
marketSTEEL: Metalshub is a digital platform. What exactly do you offer?
Our vision is to drive the digital transformation of the metals industry to ensure a successful future. Metalshub is a next generation B2B platform. A workflow solution for foundries, steel mills and metal traders to digitize raw material procurement and trading.
marketSTEEL: What are the advantages for the user?
First and foremost, digital processes significantly increase efficiency and thus save time and resources. Our digital solution can also help to identify and avoid mistakes. On the platform, quotations and negotiations are automatically documented and there are approval workflows, which significantly ease compliance procedures in many companies. Moreover, it is possible to expand and manage the supplier base through Metalshub (test deliveries, certificates, REACH, etc.). Finally, buyers can expand their commercial toolbox with features such as reverse auctions if needed.
marketSTEEL: Does this apply only to the buyers on the platform or to the sellers as well?
I am not a fan of isolated solutions, meaning every company developing its own software solution for purchasing. It is not efficient if suppliers have to work on many different platforms with different logins and processes. With Metalshub, we want to offer an industry-wide solution that is tailored to the metals industry and that also offers significant productivity gains for the sell-side.
Furthermore, we try to support suppliers in the process of acquiring new customers. Metalshub offers suppliers the opportunity to differentiate themselves in various ways: for example, through product quality, a rating system of delivery performance, through customer references or through certifications.
marketSTEEL: Very recently you launched a number of new price indices; what data are these based on?
Metalshub offers the only price indices for ferroalloys that are based on real transaction data. For metals traded on the London Metal Exchange - such as copper or nickel - this has already been the case for decades. However, ferroalloys such as ferrochrome, ferromolybdenum or ferrosilicon are not traded on any exchange. Therefore, prices are determined by journalistic research, a methodology prone to various biases. This is not the case for our price indices.
marketSTEEL: How does your index differ from other indices?
Price indices based solely on real transaction data offer numerous advantages. On the one hand, Metalshub indices are more accurate. Payment terms, delivery location, delivery conditions, and specifications all have an impact on price. Metalshub takes these factors into account using a predetermined methodology and normalizes the individual data points before aggregating them into an index. The methodology is regularly validated by industry experts from steel mills, traders and producers.
On the other hand, Metalshub price indices are significantly less susceptible to manipulation as they are data-based and calculated automatically. Metalshub as a company prides itself to be both fully independent and neutral.
As a final point, it is worth mentioning that Metalshub is the only provider of ferroalloy price data that is based in the EU. This means that we are subject to strict EU data protection and competition law in the handling of our data.
marketSTEEL: How do I get the indices?
For foundries, steel mills, recyclers or traders alike: price information is the basis for many important business decisions. Anyone who wants to make better decisions can make an appointment with one of my colleagues at metals-hub.com and take a look at the price indices in an online demo.
Fotos: marketSTEEL